Premier League Arsenal: Arteta must now unleash £280k-p/w star instead of Fabio Vieira

Premier League
Arsenal: Arteta must now unleash £280k-p/w star instead of Fabio Vieira
BY
ROSIE TURD ALL
PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO
Arsenal were 4-0 winners on their Champions League return, however Mikel Arteta will soon turn his attention to Sunday’s north London derby.

Arsenal got their Champions League campaign off to a strong start on Wednesday night, as the Gunners marked their opening fixture in Group B with a dominating 4-0 win against PSV Eindhoven at the Emirates.

Before the game, it had been seven years since the north Londoners had last played in the tournament, with Mikel Arteta’s new wave of stars showcasing a performance that looked as though they’d never left.

While it was a special night for Arsenal, all attention must immediately be turned to Sunday, as the Gunners welcome their fiercest rivals Tottenham Hotspur to Islington for a highly-anticipated north London derby.

“You could feel this was a special game!” Player of the Match Martin Odegaard talks Arsenal’s winning return to #UCL action! 🙌 🎙️ @J_Dyer_Official pic.twitter.com/Goj8X9IAVP — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 20, 2023
Ange Postecoglou’s side are level on points with Arteta’s squad in the Premier League table and have been in fine form since the start of the campaign, making Sunday’s contest one to watch.

Unlike previous meetings, the Reds will have to be at their very best to beat Spurs this time around and with the stakes being so high, Arteta could opt to make some changes to the side he fielded last time out in the league against Everton. One point of debate ahead of that game very much remains Kai Havertz.

How did Kai Havertz play against PSV?
At Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Goodison Park, summer signing Havertz was dropped from the starting XI for the first time this season to make way for Fabio Vieira.

The £280k-per-week German was reinstated into the lineup last night to face PSV, and capped off his return with a “superb” display, as praised by journalist Steve Kay after the full-time whistle.

Earning a match rating of 7.0, the Champions League winner thrived in midfield, registering a stellar 93% passing accuracy rate, as well as recording one key pass and one big chance created in the 90 minutes he played, via Sofascore. What was also eye-catching was that no player won more duels (9) throughout the entire game, and we know much Arteta likes duel winners.

The 24-year-old was praised as “intelligent” by his manager after the game, in what was an impressive performance by the versatile ace that first started in midfield and then in the dying stages saw him play as a lone striker.

Should Kai Havertz start against Spurs?
In a fixture as highly contested and full of quality as a north London derby, Arteta may opt to keep Havertz in the starting side in place of Vieira on this occasion.

The Portuguese playmaker earned his starting place against Everton, having secured two assists in his opening two appearances for the Gunners so far this campaign.

Havertz had his best game yet. When you watch Fabio Vieira this season compared to last season, I don’t understand why lots of Arsenal fans are being so impatient with Havertz. It’s helping nobody. — Paddy (@PaddyArsenal) September 20, 2023
While his distribution and vision are finally coming to light after making the move to north London from Porto in 2022, the 23-year-old lacks the physicality to contend in the midfield against a duo as sturdy as Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr.

The midfielder was previously criticised for his stature by journalist Connor Humm, who dubbed Vieira as being “too weak” in possession, an area of his game that won’t suffice in a match-up as colossal as the battle of north London.

For such reasons, it would be a wise move for Arteta to restore Havertz’s place in the Premier League squad against Spurs, who will certainly bring a challenge to the Gunners’ midfield as judged by their start to the season.

The 6 foot 4 German brings a physical and creative presence to Arsenal, in a way that can’t be replicated by Vieira, despite his recent streak of form in the final third.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rosie Tudball
(638 Articles Published)
Rosie is a freelance writer and Sports Journalism graduate from Solent University in 2019.

Since leaving University, Rosie has contributed to websites such as VAVEL.com, GGFN, Pundit Feed and Online Gooner.

Rosie is a huge Arsenal fan and contributes to the classic club fanzine The Gooner.

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Premier League
Arsenal: Gunners let a ‘legend’ leave for £0m, now he’s worth £100m & better than RVP
BY
CALLUM DAVIES
PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO
The Gunners got it all wrong by allowing a £100m man to leave for free.

Arsenal are one of England’s biggest and most illustrious clubs and therefore have played host to some of the best players to ever grace the Premier League.

A strong recruitment strategy paired with a revolutionary manager helped them largely dominate alongside Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United for years, and since Arsene Wenger’s retirement, Mikel Arteta now seems poised to lead them into a bright future once again.

However, across the last few decades of relative success, there have unsurprisingly been plenty of missteps too that managers and the hierarchy will regret. Whether it be a failed transfer, a tactical decision or just a poor refereeing performance, the Gunners have been prone to some bouts of misfortune that certainly have been exacerbated since the Frenchman’s departure.

Unai Emery was a big sufferer of this, and whilst their current 41-year-old boss struggled at the start, a show of faith has since started to reward the club handsomely. A summer of big spending helped solidify their progress, although the window was largely dominated by a transfer saga involving their north London rivals.

Had things been different and they had trusted the process with the star striker in question, perhaps it could have been them touting his services for big money or keeping him around to spearhead a title push. Before lambasting the failures of the past though, it is first worth showcasing the alternative success enjoyed with which to compare their touted blunder. After all, the acquisition of Robin van Persie was certainly one that worked out well for Wenger.

How good was Robin van Persie?
Having just been crowned Premier League champions in 2004, the club’s stock had never been higher. As such, it was easy to pry the young forward from Feyenoord despite huge interest across Europe, with the now 73-year-old former manager noting: “Robin is a great young talent and a fantastic signing for the club

“He has shown great potential at both club and U21 international level and will help strengthen our squad considerably. He has a great left foot and is a great passer of the ball with excellent vision. He is a versatile player and is comfortable playing as a striker or ok

It would not take long for the flying Dutchman to adapt to English football, with his tall, slender frame giving him the requisite physicality to battle well with the hulking centre-backs he faced.

Notching five league goals in his debut campaign, such a term merely marked the calm before the storm, as the man who would go on to captain the club soon began hitting huge number

Arsenal’s all-time top scorers

The striker would hit double figures for goal contributions in all but his first two years at Highbury (and later the Emirates), with his peak arguably coming in the years before his eventual sale.

His 18 goals and seven assists during the 2010/11 season marked incredible figures, but would somehow surpass them in the final campaign before joining Manchester United for a pitiful £24m. The ex-Netherlands international scored 30 times and assisted a further 13 in the league, deservedly taking home the PFA Player of the Year award before spearheading a title success at Old Trafford the following term.

Van Persie would make 278 appearances in an Arsenal shirt before that unceremonious exit to challenge for elite honours, but not before Wenger would issue the following praise: “He is a mixture. He is less of a runner than Thierry Henry and he is not completely Dennis Bergkamp because he plays higher up the pitch.

“He is the kind of player, with the type of game we play, who is vital because when you play the ball to his feet his first touch is always perfect and that allows others to join in. It makes everybody dangerous.”

To compare the 102-cap marksman to two legends like this just emphasises how highly thought of he remained, and yet they could have arguably had someone even better for nothing. After all, it is now seemingly common knowledge that, before he became a legend with their rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Harry Kane was a Gooner.

Why did Arsenal let Harry Kane leave?
“I remember the first time we played against Arsenal [for Tottenham’s academy] and even back then, I had a chip on my shoulder,” the 30-year-old told The Players’ Tribune back in 2018, who was released from the Gunners’ academy as a child for nothing.

It was the first of many setbacks for the man who would go on to become England’s all-time record scorer, but ones that clearly helped define him into the lethal finisher he remains today.

Wenger has Roy Massey to thank for that gaffe, who was the youth coach at the time and would spend 15 years at the club. Speaking to football.london, they were quick to quiz him on that infamous decision: “I thought you’d mention Harry Kane, thanks very much for that,” he joked.

A nine-year-old boy named Harry Kane was released by the Arsenal academy for being “A Bit Chubby” and not “Very Athletic”. Now, that chubby kid has become the highest goal scorer ever in the history of the North London Derby. pic.twitter.com/aNJTjguYJA — FootballFunnys (@FootballFunnnys) December 6, 2020
“That was Tottenham’s gain and Arsenal’s loss that one. Oh, what a wonderful player today. But we haven’t got a crystal ball and there’s a number in that situation at Arsenal who’ve left and who’ve gone on and done very well for themselves. Harry was obviously a brilliant example.

“Harry was a technician, a very talented player but did lack some mobility and pace. We did think, perhaps he wouldn’t be quite up to playing at Arsenal Football Club. So I had to sit down with his mum and dad, and the lad, and say that he wasn’t quite up to the standard of Arsenal.”

Whilst it quickly became clear that Massey among others did not rate Kane’s chances of turning professional, Liam Brady, who was Arsenal’s academy director at the time, was a lot more cutthroat about the reasons behind sanctioning his exit: “He was a bit chubby, he wasn’t very athletic but we made a mistake.”

It’s fair to say he regrets that decision, as he would then claim: “After (Lionel) Messi, (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Robert) Lewandowski there is him. The numbers say it.”

How many goals has Harry Kane scored?
A stellar career he did enjoy with Spurs, the England international actually became the club’s all-time record scorer back in February and sits second in the all-time Premier League scoring charts. For comparison, Van Persie is way behind in 13th.

It should hardly come as a surprise to see Statman Dave brand the £100m Bayern Munich forward a “legend of the game”, with his continued rise to prominence only exacerbating Arsenal’s failures.

The former Leicester City loanee would play 430 times for their north London rivals, scoring a mouth-watering 278 times. To make matters worse, the 86-cap Englishman’s proficiency in the big matches actually led him to become the top scorer in north London derbies too.

Although they enjoyed huge success with Van Persie, had they instead taken a punt on Kane and oversaw his development, perhaps they could have enjoyed an even greater period of success whilst allowing the Lilywhites legend to break records for them.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Callum Davies
(2265 Articles Published)
Callum is a freelance writer for Football FanCast, having worked in the football industry ever since graduation.

Having left University in 2022, Callum was instantly offered a place within Football FanCast’s academy process, where he was handed a role as part of the freelance opinions team. This has been his role ever since.

Since then, Callum also took on a role cultivating content for the website’s Facebook account too, helping to bolster the reach of Football FanCast.

Callum is a huge Everton fan and has written and featured on numerous fan sites talking about the club.